December 28, 2011 4:12 pm

Seattle Seahawks linebacker David Hawthorne and receiver Ben Obomanu did not practice today because of knee issues, as the team practiced inside in jerseys, sweats and no helmets.

Cornerback Kennard Cox (hamstring), defensive tackle Clinton McDonald (concussion) and linebacker Malcolm Smith (concussion) returned to practice this week after missing last weeks’ game at San Francisco.

Tarvaris Jackson (pectoral) is listed as a full participant on the injury report.

We talked to Seattle offensive line coach Tom Cable about the success of his offensive line against the best run defense in the league last week, running for 126 yards against San Francisco.

“I mentioned it to them last week, I thought the Baltimore game was a prize for them, to got out and do that against them,” Cable said. “And I thought this was the second prize, and they accomplished it the right way.

“I think it’s just part of their growth though, to be truthful here. It’s just showing them that you can go against the best defense, and you can accomplish your goals, and you can accomplish what you’ve set out to help you team win. And I think that’s what this whole program has become about – what is my role, and what do I have to do to help this team win. And I think that group has really kind of embraced it.”

Cable also said he was pleased to see fullback Michael Robinson selected as a first alternate to the Pro Bowl team.

“I have a running joke – I think the fullback is just a pseudo-guard,” Cable said. “And so I think he has to buy in like they do up front in terms of where he fits. … And so you’re just like a lineman to me, and you have to be in the right place at the right time. And Mike’s been exceptional at growing that way.

“He’s not maybe the most physical guy at it, but he’s very intelligent, and he’s just continued to grow like everyone else.”

On the speculation that a college or pro head coaching job might be in his future, Cable had this to say.

“I have no idea – I really don’t,” he said. “I mean I love what’s going on here. I love what Pete’s doing, and him bringing me here has been really kind of a blessing. So I just worry about Sunday, and so I don’t know what will happen after that. I really don’t I haven’t thought about it.”

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Feeds

I can’t imagine a team giving Cable a head job after the *alleged* stuff that happened in Oakland. However, if someone wanted a great coach, then he’d be a no-brainer. He’s proven that if anyone can make chicken salad without a whole lot of chicken, he’s the guy. I may not agree with the Gallery signing or the Carpenter pick, but you can’t argue the results he’s gotten. He may not have bought the best groceries but he sure knew the right meal to cook with the food he had.

Skill and talent trump character, both on the field and on the sidelines. That is, every team has to measure if a player / coaches issues off the field supersede what they contribute on it. It’s naive to think Cable won’t have head coaching offers somewhere, in the future.

What was dumber, Forsett not running out of bounds or Jackson throwing into coverage in the middle of the field with 18 seconds left (if caught, we’d have to spike it and there would probably only be time left for a Hail Mary (which he would have probably thrown out of the end zone), as I doubt a realistic FG could have been attempted (then again, we’ve seen it before). The dumbest, IMO, was throwing the ball so even Manute Bol (when he was alive) couldn’t have caught it on the 4th and 2.

Funny how the Raider FO, Al, the NFl, and the police all declined to merit out any sort of punishment on that front.
Sounds to me like Hanson was a class A prick who asked for it. far as I can tell no other team has hired him since.
I think we have all known some guy in our lives who just flat out asked for it. I know that I have readily obliged “them” on more than one occasion.

I missed the end of the game on Saturday (had to go to a Christmas Eve service) and just caught it on NFL Replay. Two things stood out to me:

1. Lynch is truly a beast and he must be re-signed. The way he’s catching and running, he’s capable of a 2,000-yard season (combined yards from scrimmage). This reminds me of the Rams in the late 1990s, who got an under-performing Marshall Faulk for a second-round pick from the Colts and saw him explode into a HOFer. Just picture all the highlight reels we’ll be seeing of The Beast on NFL Network when we’re in our rocking chairs. The guy is super-talented and as long as he keeps himself out of trouble, he could be mega-star.

2. The Seahawks went toe-to-toe with the second best team in the conference. It’s easy to put down the Niners, but the way their defense is playing, they are capable of upsetting the Packers and getting to the Super Bowl. The biggest difference between the teams isn’t QB (though Alex Smith is playing better than Tarvaris), but pass rush. Smith had too much time in the pocket, Tarvaris had very little.

Soggy, I agree and I always felt Cable got shafted in Oakland. Randy Hansen was a crappy coach who was only on the coaching staff as Al Davis’ snitch. From inside accounts, he wasn’t loyal to his coach and he deserved a punch in the mouth. When Davis went off on Cable upon firing him, Davis was amping things up purely to weasel out of fulfilling his contract obligations to Cable by ‘firing him for cause’.

Tom Cable was the best coach the Raiders have had in the past 10 years, and he got shafted by Al Davis. I hope Coach Cable stays here in Seattle for a long time.

I really like Moffitt (lukewarm on Carpenter) but this line also got noticeably better after the two rookies went down. This is a rare instance that having those two starters hurt actually seemed to help the team with on-field production so I don’t think the “woe is us” on the injury front here means what it does if a real starter like Okung went down. However, I still can’t figure out how a guy like Okung can go down and the line still plays as well as it did. Nobody can tell me that McQuistan isn’t miles better (THIS YEAR) than either Moffitt or Carpenter. It’s pretty obvious that they were trying to do the right thing by letting their top 2 picks take their lumps as rookies and gain continuity by letting them play (which I agree with) but there’s no way McQuistan wasn’t one of the best 3-4 players on our offensive line when everyone was healthy either.

The guy that stood out to me was Breno not McQuistan. But in either case, both performed well above my expectations.

I think it’s important to consider too, that the players that filled in had also been working together all season as a unit as #2s and should have had a lot of familiarity with one another. Not unlike a backup QB and 3 or 4th receiver having a chemistry. Also, a line looks much better when the play caller gets your best offensive player 20+ touches a game, which didn’t happen for the first 2 and a half months of the season.

I’m probably not as high on Breno this year just because he always seems good for a penalty or two in about every game. With that being said, I won’t be mad if he enters ’12 as a starter at RT. We’ve come a long way in thinking that our OL (finally) isn’t a must have early in the upcoming draft. Neither of those guys are superstars by any means, but they are clearly better than a majority of crap our offensive lines have had in the last half decade, too.

Time to go out and get a QB and a couple of additional defensive linemen!

There is zero chance the Seahawks get Luck and very little chance the Seahawks get RG3. The price too move up will be far too great. You’ll have to research the second group of QBs available and let us know who they should draft.

No question that Cable is a magician as an offensive line coach, but seriously, if you don’t think he was “offensive” as a head coach in Oakland, you know nothing about respect. And for him to say, after going from head coach to offensive line coach, that he is not thinking about another head coaching gig is just out and out lying–but thats what coaches do. Its in the job description.

I think their some coaches who just make great for assistant coaches & Tom Cable in my opinion seem like that type coach.. Thought so far the only coaching jobs available are KC, Miami, San Diego(Norv Turner on his way out), Jacksonville, St. Louis(steve spagnuolo is about to be can), Tampa???, Bears??, Titans(if HC doesn’t leave for College Ranks), Indy possiblity..

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